I've always held this truth to be self evident that if Donald Trump is elected back into the White House he'll stay there basking in autocracy for the rest of his life, and no one, that is to say none of the law makers and law enforcers who have the power to do so, will make him leave because Donald Trump is never held accountable for his wrongdoing. (All right, he was convicted of 34 felonies, but so what? Has that conviction resulted in the least inconvenience for Trump? Does anyone actually believe that it ever will?) As to why I believe that Donald Trump, if elected, has no intention of leaving after his term of office is up, well, there's the fact that he already tried once to stay in power after he was voted out by spurring his disciples to invade the U.S. Capitol. And since then Trump has dropped hints that he'll try again, as when he wrote on his Truth Social site in December of 2022 that his loss of the Presidential election was a massive fraud that "allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution." And last May while speaking at a National Rifle Association event Trump brought up that Franklin D. Roosevelt served four terms and pondered regarding himself, "Are we going to be considered three term?" And finally, three days ago Donald Trump just came right out and said it point blank several times during a speech to a congregation of his devotees at the conservative Christian Turning Point conference: “You have to go out at least this election, and just get us into that beautiful White House. You won’t have to (vote) anymore...Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians...You gotta get out and vote. In four years, you don’t have to vote again — we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.” Any questions? Anybody terrified? References:
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-tells-christians-they-wont-have-vote-after-this-election-2024-07-27/ https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/03/politics/trump-constitution-truth-social/index.html
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One week ago I, along with many of my fellow Americans, believed with a heavy heart that the United States was going down the same inevitable path that so many other societies have gone down throughout the course of history, away from democracy into autocracy. But in the past week the universe has flipped several times: Five days ago President Joe Biden stepped down from running for another term. Three days ago Kamala Harris garnered enough delegates to become the Democratic nominee for President Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, for the past two days, and for the first time since I can remember, Donald Trump's name was nowhere on the front page of the New York Times or the Columbus Dispatch. Which has been a most welcome respite. But surely most amazing among all these remarkable happenings has been the enormous grass roots youth movement - or movements? - in support of Kamala Harris that have sprung up just in the past five days and taken off like wild fire across social media, news media, the whole mass mega meta media universe. There's the already ubiquitous Coconut Tree video-clip-seen-round-the-world of Kamala Harris telling the story of how her mother admonished her that she didn't fall out of a coconut tree, then Kamala punctuating the story with her big jolly laugh, And while the internet cognoscenti have been discussing, dissecting, and digging for the true significance of Kamala Harris's coconut tree anecdote, her legion of young fans aren't much concerned with the whys and wherefores of the story, but rather have recruited themselves into a Coconut Tree army, embracing the coconut and the coconut tree as their symbols. For those five or ten people on the planet who haven't yet seen the "Coconut Tree" video clip, here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/br6EHiAWJ_M?feature=share And then there's the KHive (pronounced K-Hive). This is the original Kamala Harris online fan group that formed back in 2020 in support of Harris in her first presidential run. Though the KHive quieted down during Harris's years as Vice-President, the group has buzzed back to life this week - as #KHive - all over X, TikTok and Instagram. And then there's brat. In truth, though I've been scrolling around the 'net trying to figure exactly what brat is and exactly how it relates to Kamala Harris, I can't quite wrap my head around it. I'm starting to think that you have to have been born in this century or late in the last one to completely get what brat is. In any case, I did make the effort to understand, and what I've come up with - I think - is that brat (with a small b) is the title of a music album with a lime green cover, ...by a British pop star named Charli XCX. Now, I don't know whether the word "brat" was already in the youth lexicon and Ms. XCX named her album after the word, or whether she coined the word and from there it became part of the Gen Z lingo.
In any case the word, according to what I read on Yahoo News, now refers to a movement called "brat summer" that "pretty much rejects the norm and embraces the unapologetic. Think edgy, imperfect, and confident." At some point over the past few days Charli XCX posted on social media that "Kamala is brat." And then a Charli XCX fan and Kamala Harris supporter created this oh-so-appealing video of clips of Harris put to music from "brat" and posted it on X: https://twitter.com/i/status/1808510079382982870 I can't say I'm surprised that the video has gone viral, as I for one can't stop watching it. And though I've got almost half a century on the Gen Z crowd, I've gone and joined the Coconut Tree Army. And my heart is now light as a feather and full of hope. Sunday afternoon, July 21 (but was it really only the day before yesterday? Already it seems like weeks ago) I received a call from my daughter. She answered my "Hi, Honey," with "Mom! You heard if from me first!" "Heard what?" I said. "Heard what?" she said. "Mom, what's the news you've been waiting to hear and hoping to hear more than anything else in the world?" Now, I'll admit that in this family we have nothing if not a flair for hyperbole and the dramatic. Still, I wondered if I dared guess... "Has Joe Biden dropped out?" I tremulously asked. My daughter's happy whoop gave me my answer and my joy-o-meter shot up until it rang the bell. But it was only as long as it took for me to click open my phone and see the headline: ...and the picture: ...before my elation was deflated, and all the aggravation, all the frustration I'd felt for the past few weeks over Biden's refusal to step down from the Presidential race - the same aggravation and frustration shared by millions of other Americans - melted away and was replaced by a rush of sadness and affection for him. Now Joe Biden was no longer the stubborn old man who refused to leave when it was time, but the man who had given a life of service to his country, soldiered on through personal sorrows, and, as President, shepherded the country back from an economically debilitating pandemic while pushing through an ambitious agenda that brought improvements in infrastructure, technology, public safety, and healthcare. He was a leader who, armed with his conscience, took on the challenges of a turbulent, war-torn, crisis-ridden world while at home fighting a hostile Congress whose members were pledged, not to the welfare of our country, but to the whims and wishes of a would-be American dictator. And now, with this news that Joe Biden was leaving the presidential race, glad as I was to hear the news, I felt sorry that it had to be this way. Not sorry that Biden was leaving - because he did have to, it was past time - but because of the grief and sense of loss that he was suffering over it. And, while mixed in with hope and anticipation, my own sense of grief and loss for him. While roaming through the news outlets I came across this video commentary by CNN commentator Van Jones, in which Jones gave an emotional speech on Biden's decision to drop out. Here's the link to the video:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/21/politics/video/van-jones-reaction-joe-biden-exits-2024-election-digvid For me, Van Jones's words say it all. Maybe they say it all for you, too. Books by Patti Liszkay available on Amazon: "Equal And Opposite Reactions" http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa "Hail Mary" https://www.amzn.com/1684334888 "Tropical Depression" https://www.amzn.com/B0BTPN7NYY |
"Tropical Depression"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPN7NYY "Equal And Opposite Reactions"
by Patti Liszkay Buy it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa or from The Book Loft of German Village, Columbus, Ohio Or check it out at the Columbus Metropolitan Library
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